Beer-related travel, at home and abroad, exploring and indulging my passion for beer.

Saturday, 20 July 2013

Annafest

Beer festivals are like buses, you wait ages for one to come
along and then three arrive at once! OK, not quite all at once, but one after
another, and this time of year always seems a particularly busy one for
celebrating the fruits and delights of the brewers’ art.

Last weekend saw the highly successful SIBA South East
Region Beer Festival, which I’ve already reported on here. This weekend sees the
similarly- sized Kent Beer Festival,one of the longest running events of this
nature in the country; in fact the Kent Beer Festival is the second oldest
CAMRA festival in Britain. The
first one took place in 1975, so next year, 2014, will be the event’s 40th
anniversary. After a gap of several years, I attended last year’s festival
and, after thoroughly enjoying myself, made a commitment to go along this
year. Unfortunately the event immediately precedes another beer festival;
one which takes place abroad, and one which I have wanted to attend for quite
some time.

The event I am referring to is known as Annafest, and is held
every July in the small Franconian town of Forchheim,
in northern Bavaria. The event
is primarily a folk festival, held over a 10 day period to celebrate St Anna’s
day (July 26th). St Anna (Anne in English), was the mother of the
Virgin Mary, and Bavaria being a staunchly Catholic country celebrates such
events in style, and with the help of more than a few beers of course! We’re
not actually flying out until Monday morning (22nd), so in theory I
could have joined my friends at Canterbury yesterday for the first day of the Kent
Festival, but with going away there were a lot of loose ends to tie up at work,
but shopping and packing to do today, (not much fun with a hangover!), so I
reluctantly decided that Canterbury would have been one festival just too many.

So what of Annafest? Well, not having been before I’m not
quite sure what to expect. The festival takes place on a site occupying a
wooded hillside, just on the edge of Forchheim. The “Kellerwald”, as the area
is known, has 23 Bierkellers (beer gardens really), most of which only open for
Annafest, although a small number are open all year. There are also fairground
rides and attractions, plus six stages featuring a wide range of different
musical acts, (quite what sort of acts remains to be seen). About nine or ten
local breweries supply the beer, including the four breweries based in
Forchheim itself, with many of them brewing a special “Annafest Bier”.

The event opened today (Saturday 20th), with a
parade through Forchheim, followed by the ceremonial tapping of the first cask
by the Bürgermeister, (town Mayor), but hopefully there will still be some
beer left by the time we arrive late Monday afternoon. We’re renting an
apartment in the centre of Forchheim, so shouldn’t have far to travel, and
anyway a shuttle bus runs between the bus station and the Kellerwald. Whilst
there, we’ll obviously be visiting the town centre taps of the four Forchheim
breweries, as well as exploring a bit further a field. Forchheim is roughly
halfway between Nuremberg, (where
we’re flying in to) and Bamberg.
We’ve visited Bamberg before. Not
only is this beautiful city home to eight breweries and famed for its “Raucbier”
(smoke beer), it also contains some smashing pubs. A return visit will
definitely be on the cards.

I’ve got two books for guidance: John Conen’s excellent
Guide to Bamberg & Franconia, plus Ron Pattinson’s Trip! (South), which
covers a much wider area of southern Germany.
I’ve also got the Annafest App for my Smartphone, which gives details of the
various Bierkellers, opening times, beers sold, availability of food, music or
music free etc. It also has a plan of the Kellerwald showing the location of
the various Kellers, names, times and venues for the various music acts, plus
general information about the event.

All in all it promises to be an excellent event, especially
as the weather looks set to remain fine, for the first half of the week at
least. Tandleman, who has been to Annafest before, gave me a few words of
advice. “Take plenty of insect repellent”, he said. When I asked why, he
reminded me that warm summer nights and forested areas are a bad combination
when it comes to attracting biting insects. Thanks for the tip Peter, my “Jungle
Formula” insect repellent is already packed.

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About Me

Sixty years old (just) and married with one twenty-something son, who shows no sign of wanting to
leave home. My interests are many and varied, and whilst beer (and the
enjoyment of it) obviously features high on the list I also enjoy travelling
(particularly when it involves searching out new beers to try), cycling and
walks in the countryside. I dabble a bit in gardening, which at the moment
primarily involves re-landscaping my garden. My other main interests though are
music, especially 70's rock music, and history. I have been a member of CAMRA
since the mid 1970's and have edited a number of local branch magazines. I have
also had published two, now sadly out of date, guides to Kent
pubs. For six years my wife and I also ran our own successful real-ale
off-licence, which as well as selling cask ale to take away by the pint,
offered one of the best selections of bottled beers in the south east. Prior to
taking on the shop, I was an accomplished home-brewer producing a wide range of
full-mash beers; something I intend to get back into in the not too distant
future.